GEOG 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 34: Quinine, Cecil Rhodes, Maxim Gun
6 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
GEOG 1000
February 14, 2018
Colonizing Sub-Saharan Africa and the creation of poverty and wealth
Early Colonial Interaction
● Portuguese on the coast in the 1400s
● The Dutch in South Africa developed a colony, no disease due to temperate climate
Colonialism Defined
● A political and economic system in which regions and societies are legally,
economically, and politically dominated by an external society. In this uneven
connection, the colonizer works to reshape the regional politics and economy to suit
its own needs.
Rationale for Colonization
● Civilization / Christianity
● Saturated with explicit racism, racial superiority was a clear justification
● “We are the first race in the world, and the more of the world we inhabit, the better it
is for the human race” - Cecil Rhodes
● Commerce
○ Colonies = new markets
○ Colonies = access to natural resources
● Fight between Europeans to secure resources and develop
● Ambitious plans - saw Africa as land for the taking
● Imperial rivalries are part of the long history in Europe
○ Imperial rivalry intensifies by the 1880s
● Desperate sense that if you did not expand, you would be left behind and diminish
Berlin Conference
● Determined the Principle of Effectivity
○ By flying the flag
○ Making use of the colony economically
○ Establishing political centre and police force
● Knowledge of space helps you control and exploit the space
Enabling Movement into the Interior
● Superior firepower
○ Particularly the Maxim Gun, automatic weapon on wheels.
● Quinine - malaria treatment so people wouldn’t die from it
● Carving up the Continent
○ By 1914: 10,000 African kingdoms transformed into 40 colonies
○ Europeans ignored indigenous cultural and political geographies
Decolonization
● Happening elsewhere, such as in the Pacific Islands
● Rise of Pan-African activism - early 1900s
Document Summary
Colonizing sub-saharan africa and the creation of poverty and wealth. Portuguese on the coast in the 1400s. The dutch in south africa developed a colony, no disease due to temperate climate. A political and economic system in which regions and societies are legally, economically, and politically dominated by an external society. In this uneven connection, the colonizer works to reshape the regional politics and economy to suit its own needs. Saturated with explicit racism, racial superiority was a clear justification. We are the first race in the world, and the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race - cecil rhodes. Fight between europeans to secure resources and develop. Ambitious plans - saw africa as land for the taking. Imperial rivalries are part of the long history in europe. Desperate sense that if you did not expand, you would be left behind and diminish. Knowledge of space helps you control and exploit the space.
